Trekking The Kang La, Miyar Valley & Suru

Days 1-3: Delhi to Kullu Valley acclimatization
Days 4-5: Drive to Jispa (3,250m), altitude adjustment
Days 6-12: Miyar Valley trek and Kang La crossing
Days 13-15: Zanskar exploration, Phugtal Monastery
Days 16-17: Suru Valley rock climbing
Days 18-20: Drass wildlife tracking
Day 21: Return to Delhi

Land in India’s capital and meet your guide at the airport. Delhi hits you immediately: humid air thick with history, rickshaw horns creating their ancient symphony, the sweet smoke of street food mixed with diesel fumes. We’ll get you settled, then head to one of the city’s legendary restaurants where recipes haven’t changed in three generations. Early rest tonight. Tomorrow, we chase mountains!

A morning flight lifts you above the chaos into mountain air. The drive from Chandigarh takes 5-6 hours, winding through valleys that get greener and quieter with each mile. Here, you can breathe deeeeeply and truly feel your body and mind relax. Apple orchards climb steep and stunning slopes all around you, and the Beas River runs clear between ancient stones. Your homestay sits among deodars and rhododendrons – the kind of place where time slows down, measured in cups of chai rather than clock hours. THIS is the stuff of life.

Last day of easy living. Wander through apple orchards thick with fruit in the summer season. Visit Naggar Castle, where you’ll find 15th-century stones warmed under mountain sun, then the Roerich Gallery, where paintings capture the Himalayas’ mystical pull better than any photograph. Time to stock up on last-minute supplies and check your gear. Tomorrow we cross into serious mountain country.

Cross the Atal Tunnel and emerge into Lahaul – with a landscape stark it could be another planet. Jagged peaks slice the horizon. The Bhaga River runs and flows turquoise against black rock. At Jispa (10,650 feet), your breath comes shorter and your pulse quickens. As you acclimate to the elevation gain, you’ll also gear up to begin the walking portion of this epic adventure. Here you’ll also find the Gemoor Khar lodge, once home to Lahaul’s former rulers, offers thick walls and windows that frame snow-covered peaks.

Acclimatization day! Short walks, long views. Your body starts its dance with thin air. Sip butter tea, and watch clouds build against distant summits. Optional drive to Shinku La Pass (16,470 feet) if you’re feeling strong, for the air up there shimmers like water. Return to base for rest. Tomorrow, the wilderness begins.

Today you drive 3 hours to Khanjar, the last village before pure wilderness. Civilization ends here: a handful of stone houses, barley fields stand out in a vibrant green against brown mountains. Your trek begins gently: 3 hours along an ancient glacial valley where silence has real weight. Orange tents appear against the vast emptiness. Juniper fires crackle. Stars come out sharp enough to cut – the experience of being in such an isolated and raw place is something spectacular, and is a feeling that’s hard to truly describe until you experience it for yourself.

Camp at 3,600m
Walking time: 3 hours
Difficulty: Easy

Six-hour trek to Zardung, aka the “Land of Boulders,” where massive stones lie scattered almost like toys from mountain gods. There is ancient spirit in these mountains and lands, that’s for sure. Some are house-sized, others car-sized, all impossibly balanced after millennia of glacier movement. The landscape feels old-as-time, potent, and oh so alive. You’ll camp among these stone guardians while glacial winds whip and sing through the rocks.

Camp at 3,850m
Walking time: 6 hours
Difficulty: Moderate

Shorter day (3 hours) to the Miyar Glacier’s snout today. Ice-blue meltwater forms perfect alpine lakes that mirror the sky. Unreal views, perhaps unlike anything you’ve ever seen. You’re at the threshold now – beyond here lies only ice, stone, and thin air. Hot lunch at camp instead of trail rations. Early rest… Tomorrow, changes everything.

Camp at 3,950m
Walking time: 3 hours
Difficulty: Easy

Seven hours crossing lateral moraines (a mass of rocks and sediment carried down and deposited by a glacier, typically as ridges at its edges). Your boots crunch on loose scree (loose stones that cover a slope on a mountain). Ropes come out for the technical sections. This is mountaineering now, not just hiking. You’ll camp directly on glacier ice, centuries of compressed snow beneath your tent floor (wow!).

Camp at 4,500m
Walking time: 7-8 hours
Difficulty: Hard

Today, you leave rock behind completely to walk on pure glacial ice, following crevasse patterns. The Miyar Glacier becomes your highway, bedroom, your entire world. Camp at 16,400 feet on flat ice sections. Above you, Kang La Pass cuts the sky like a knife edge.

Camp at 5,000m
Walking time: 6-7 hours
Difficulty: Hard

You’ll start in pre-dawn, milky darkness, where your headlamps carve through blue-black air. The climb to Kang La is intense (in the best way) – ice axes biting, crampons gripping, lungs working overtime in air with half the oxygen of sea level. Then, suddenly, you’re there! 17,880 feet above the sea. The Zanskar Valley opens below like a hidden world, all secret valleys and distant peaks touched with gold.

Descend into Zanskar’s embrace. Camp tonight on solid ground that feels soft as a feather bed (this journey is not just physical, but also mental).

Camp at 4,500m
Summit: 5,450m
Walking time: 6-7 hours
Difficulty: Hard

Trek 15 kilometers to the roadhead where vehicles wait. The drive to Padum is short but revolutionary and delicious: hot showers, real beds, fresh vegetables. You’ve just crossed one of the Himalayas’ most challenging passes. Tonight we celebrate properly!

Walking time: 6-7 hours

Every serious expedition needs ‘flex’ time. If the weather held and we stayed on schedule, today becomes pure gift. Explore Padum’s ancient Karsha Monastery, hunt for turquoise in local markets, or simply lie in the sun and let your achievement sink in.

Drive to Purne, then hike 4 hours to Phugtal Monastery, built impossibly into a cliff face like a swallow’s nest. Monks have chanted in these caves for over 2,500 years, their voices echoing off stone walls polished smooth by countless hands. The hike through barren gorges makes finding this place feel like discovering Shangri-La. Ah, this is a very special day indeed. One so many would love to experience just once in their lifetime.

Return to Padum hotel
Walking time: 4 hours

Today, you cross Penzi La Pass where the Drang Drung Glacier spills down mountainsides like frozen waterfalls. Descend into Suru Valley, India’s emerging climbing mecca. Your private luxury camp sits among granite spires that would make Yosemite climbers jealous. Tonight, sleep under stars in perfect silence, and let this moment be a true gift. This is truly living, not just being alive. 

Luxury wilderness camp
Driving time: 6 hours through 4,200m pass

Two days in climbing heaven. Whether you’re learning to read rock and figure out the ropes (literally and metaphorically) or seeking unclimbed lines, Suru delivers. Clean granite, perfect weather, routes for every skill level. Between climbs, you can lounge in camp chairs with views that belong in magazines. This is mountain leisure at its finest: luxury camping with world-class climbing right outside your tent.

Luxury wilderness camp both nights
All climbing gear provided

Drive to Drass, the second coldest inhabited place on Earth (though summer sun makes this hard to believe). Check into Drenmo Lodge, named after the local brown bears that roam these heights. Your room overlooks valleys where these magnificent creatures – India’s largest land carnivores – emerge at dawn and dusk to forage among wildflower meadows. Straight out of National Geographic, really!

Altitude: 3,600m

Start before sunrise. Golden hour is when Himalayan brown bears move like shadows across distant slopes. Through high-powered optics, watch their unique dance – powerful, graceful, and completely wild. The day belongs to wildlife: golden eagles carving through the sky, blue sheep picking impossible routes up cliff faces, and maybe even the ghost-like glimpse of a snow leopard’s tail vanishing into rocks.

Early morning and evening wildlife sessions

Cross Zoji La Pass into Kashmir’s lush green landscape. The contrast tends to hit like stepping into another season – from high desert to alpine meadows, from silence to the distant call of kingfishers. To end, you’ll fly from Srinagar to Delhi for your return home or to immerse deeper into the magic of India.

The land changes—and somewhere along the way, so do you.

Driving time: 4 hours to Srinagar